Iona was on the Which? Money podcast this week, solving listeners’ pension pot problems.
She looks at the most common pension questions and dilemmas facing young people ahead of the publication of her new book “OWN IT! How our generation can invest our way to a better future“.
The idea behind a pension should be simple and empowering. Most of us don’t want to work forever. So why not save throughout your life so you build up enough money to – one day – stop or at least cut back your work, and do something else with your life?
Alas, most young people I know don’t see it this way. When they do think about their pension (which is very rarely), they tend to see it as a problem, not an opportunity. Pensions now come with a ton of historical and political baggage – most of it negative. A lot of young people say to me that they’ll never get to retire, and even if they do, there won’t be a pension for them to fall back on.
Things won’t be nearly as bad as that (especially if more people read OWN IT! and act). But there is a grain of truth in their analysis.
Pensions have a long and complicated history. Workplace pensions today are much less generous than they were a generation ago. And the state pension is unlikely to stay at the current heightened ‘triple lock’ level when we come to retire. All this means that young people have to be much more “pension-proactive” than their parents or grandparents.
But the good news is that we have more options and choices than we think. We can up our contributions, move to a more adventurous fund that will take greater risks in the stock market – advisable and even essential if you’re investing for the long-term – and we can move to a fund that more closely fits our values too. Have a listen and find out more.
Main image: Retired Card! by Jade Fischer for Not On The High Street
